To Fill or Not to Fill

[Tom De Winter]

I have a close neighbor getting married and I wanted to make a Two-Ring Wedding Goblet as a gift.
As a new turner I didn't know if I could acquire the skills quickly enough to do a worthy gift.

I decided to make a test piece to help decide sizes and proportions as well as build skills. I grabbed a piece of walnut that I had knowing it had a few insect holes. But hey, it was only a practice piece. Now that I have it close to finish it's nice enough to not be firewood.

There's a few pin-holes in the goblet portion and a nasty one at the base that transverses to the other side. The picture shows this one.

Should I try to fill with something (what?). Or should I leave them as just the nature of this piece of wood?
I intend to finish with Poly.

I drilled holes about the same size in the waste area and tried wet sanding with Poly for the liquid. This seemed to fill the holes but leave a dark brown dot that to me looks worse.

Opinions appreciated.
Tom

 

[Gary Beasley]

Ive found when making pens with insect holes filling it with clear ca looked good, you could see the character but the hole wasnt really a hole anymore.

 

[Tom De Winter]

I'll give that a try in the scrap area.
BTW, I'll be driving through your area in a week on the way to visit my son and delivery my old lathe to him.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Looks great! On salad bowls that we intend to use, I’ve filled small holes like this with epoxy mixed with sanding dust from the same piece. I’d fill from both sides. Almost invisible, and keeps oil and vinegar from leaking through.

 

[hockenbery]

Looks like a keeper!

Unless I plan to fill it with liquid I would not fill the hole.

I would use a woodburner to color and soften the edges of the hole.
Makes it look more like a natural defect.

 

[John Rander]

The piece looks nice! As Gary remarked, I usually fill small holes with epoxy (or CA glue). The results do not detract from the work, nor the beauty of the wood grain. On larger voids I have been using epoxy mixed with finely ground coffee grains to underline the natural defect aspect. Some go farther and underline the defect with a contrasting color (like turquoise mica powder mixed into the epoxy). After all imperfections are part of the interest of wood. In some cultures repaired vessels have more value than unblemished pieces.

 

[Gary Beasley]

I'll give that a try in the scrap area.
BTW, I'll be driving through your area in a week on the way to visit my son and delivery my old lathe to him.

Drop me a note when you are travelling. This is a big area, where are you dropping the lathe off?